Well done e9! We had a fabulous day at our last S2T day at Ross Intermediate. Our behaviour was impeccable and our sense of whakawhanaungatanga (positive relationships) was exemplary. I would take all of you away again with me in a second. Next challenge - our Marae Trip!

There was a man who was playing lots of instruments while standing. He looked around, there was nobody to be seen. He looked around again. Walking to a fountain was a little girl. With a coin in her hand the girl was heading to the founain. It seemed like she was going drop the coin into the fountain, when suddenly she heard a trumpet blow. The man started playing all of his instruments at once. The girl seemed to like the music and walked towards the man. The man quickly kicked his money pot towards the girl so the girl could put her coin in. She was about to put her coin into the man’s moneypot when suddenly she heard the sound of a violin from a few meteres behind her. Another man appeared with a violin and a cone shaped hat. The little girl rushed over to the man with the violin with her single coin. And out of his cone shaped hat sprung an empty cone shaped money bucket for the girl to put her coin in.

But just when she was going to put the coin into the mans coned shaped bucket, the girl heard another instrument from behind her and the first man was playing the trumpet using one of his drums as a unicycle. But then he failed and fell off of the drum. Elegantly the second man who had a cone hat carried on playing. Suddenly the man with the trumpet started doing a terrific jazz solo. The girl was turning around to give him a coin when the other man with the violin scraped hard with the violin stick up on the violin and then he threw away his old stick and got a new one from his bag. First he played a little bit of his keyboard, then he started strumming at his violin hard. Once again the girl still with a coin in her hand turned around getting ready to give him the coin. The trumpet drum man saw this and he went to a higher level. He quickly pulled a cord that was connected to his drum. Out of the top of his drum poped out a spring sort of thing holding lots of cardboard people with mini trumpets automatticly playing the trumpets. The second man did something to make lots of small violins pop out from his back extending to the left and right of his shoulders. The violin man’s violins from the side also played automattically.

The two men were now walking nearer and nearer to each other while they were playing their instruments. There seemed to be some rivalry going on. Both of them were playing one note and another and in the end they were face to face playing at the same time. They were actually kind of hitting each other’s instruments. They may not have known this but they were actually making a sound with them playing at the same time. But then they really started pushing and shoving eachother and they were getting closer and closer to the girl. They got so close that it was too much for the girl who still had the coin in her hand. It was way too noisy for the girl, that as she tried to cover her ears, she dropped her coin onto the ground.

The coin strated rolling towards a gutter. The two musicians and the little girl watched helplesly as the coin rolled and rolled and eventualy fell into the gutter. She had a sad look on her face. She started sniffing and she angrly held out her hand at the trumpet man and the violin man so that they could give her back her coin. The trumpet man touched his clothes showing he had no money. Neither did the violin mn have any money. The girl pointed at one on the violins suggesting that the violin man should give her a violin. The trumpet man pulled it off and put it in front of her hands. She snatched it off him and the trumpet man also gave her a stick to play with. She also grabbed that off him. She walked back and pulled up the fallen down pot. (She still had a very angry face). She strummed the violin, it did’nt sound right so she tuned the violin. She strummed again, It screeched she tuned it again. The men were still watching her getting ready to cover their ears. But then she started playing the violin like a proffesional and she carried on playing like this. Some random person appered from nowhere and walked over to her and droped a whole bagful of coins onto the pot and walked off. She stopped playing and a smile came on her face.

She picked up the bag of coins and walked to the fountain with the men watching. She picked up one coin out of her bag. Fasinated, the men smiled and thought that she was going to give it to one of them. She flicked the coin and when they realised there were two coins, they smiled even more. The girl shook the coins while smiling to herself. The trumpet man and the violin man moved closer to her expectantly. Still smiling the little girl threw the two coins into the top of the fountain. The musicians’ jaws dropped

By nightfall, the two musicians were now helping each other, still trying to get the two coins back from the fountain. Long after the girl had gone.

Friday, 22 March 2013

Kia ora whanau, I've almost finished our vocabulary wall where e9ers can use juicy vocabulary in their writing. The categories are looks like, sounds like, tastes like, smells like, feels like, instead of said and a whole bunch of adverbs! Which ones can you use in your writing?

Sunday, 17 March 2013

We have been learning to retell a story so this week we are going to practise that. You need to visit the class blog and watch the movie there (here). Plan for your writing: who are the characters, where does the story take place, what happens in order? What interesting words could you use to describe? What is the main idea of the story? (What is it trying to teach us?).

We have also been focusing on what good writers do in writing. So you need to make sure you include a variety of interesting sentence beginnings, choose challenging vocabulary (not words like ‘cool’ or ‘good’) and organise your writing into paragraphs.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Kia ora whanau, here is a copy of the must do/can do lists that e9 work through independently while I'm working with a maths group or reading group. Most tasks will require learners to provide evidence of their learning on their blogs/ePortfolios. Please have a look at your child's ePortfolio. Have they included the WALT, the title and a label? Also, do they follow our post guidelines?

Wednesday, 6 March 2013

We have been learning about nga nama this week in e9. The Numbers in Maori. We tried to learn by singing. I think we are pretty good with tahi, rua, toru, wha... but then we are lost until we get to tekau! Hopefully, we can get a bit of practise through Korero Mai - RSS Style! I think when we know nga nama from rima (5) to tekau (10) without counting on our fingers we'll have it sussed. Mauri Ora!